Large, Squishy Rats

After reading some of the comments yesterday and laughing about the comments on the size of that one rat...I thought I would share some of my rats past and present pictures. These were and are my big boys. Not all rats get big and squishy but some of them do. Male rats are more likely to get a bit bigger when they get older because they become lap rats that just want to lay in your lap and be petted, while female rats have too much energy and are always on the run thus keeping their slim figures. lol 

Above are Bandit on the left and Marbles on the right. Bandit got quite chunky. 

Bandit was a food hog. Meaning when I put a plate of food for dinner or treats he would push all the other rats out of the way and hide as much of it in the house as possible. But all the other rats knew where his stash was and they would go raid it when they wanted. lol 

Lucky and most rats look a lot bigger when they are laying down or completely relaxed because their skin pools around them if they are a bit on the chunky side. Even small rats with less fat on them seem to look quite chunky when they lay out flat.

But he's still limber enough to bend himself into the craziest positions. Those are his back feet up by his face. Yep, he bent himself in half to clean his feet and fell asleep like that. 

My rats might get chunky because I "share" my food with them. lol 

But when Lucky stand tall you can see he's really not as big as he seems to be when he's laying down. 

Maybe he should lay off the Birthday cake?

Bandit posed for pictures this last Christmas and he was a big boy.

This was Oreo, a rat I had a few years ago. He was a big boy too and like I said, they get reaaaaly lazy in their old age. He fell asleep like this.

Lucky looks fat and happy in his hammock. 

Now the only seriously big rat I've ever had was Jasper. That's him standing next to a paper towel tube that is 11" long. He was 19" from tail to nose and weighed 3lbs. But he ran around, was able to clean himself and lived to be almost 3 years old which is a good old age for a rat. I think his ancestors must have been from the nuclear testing facility here in Las Vegas. lol 

Jasper was a sweet rat and was always giving kisses. My daughter made this picture. He was sitting there cleaning himself and all she did was put her hand near him and he started licking her. 

Lucky looks really big when he rolls himself up in a ball, but he's not as big as Jasper was by any means. 

All your comments yesterday about big rats, just made me smile.